BUS5PB Semester 2 2022

BUS5PB Principles of Business Analytics

Semester 2 2022

Assignment 1: Self-Service Analytics Solution

Due: 4th September Sunday @ 11:59pm

Release Date: 11th August 2022

Due Date: 4th September (Sunday) @ 11:59pm
Assignment Type: Individual
Weight: 30%
Submission Format: A written report (electronic form) and electronic submissions of analytics
solution files on the LMS site.

Learning Objective

The first assignment aims to assess analytical thinking as well as technical skills in the use of self-service
analytics software packages to develop an analytics solution. You are required to understand the
business context, apply the analytics software packages to explore the given dataset to unveil the
business insights, and make analytics recommendations. You are also tasked to develop an analytics
report to convey your findings.

The Context

In the past two decades, the pharmaceutical, personal care, and nutritional industries have converged to
address growing demands in the beauty, health, and wellness market. This convergence has resulted in
the formation of the new industry segments – Nutraceuticals, Cosmeceuticals and Nutricosmetics.

Figure 1: Emergence of new industry segments

• Cosmeceuticals: topical cosmetic products that have medicinal or drug-like benefits (creams and
fortified syrups).
• Nutricosmetics: supplementation of nutrients that are formulated for beauty care (both oral and
topical).
• Nutraceuticals: products derived from food sources that provide extra health benefits, in
addition to the basic nutritional value found in food (dietary supplements and functional food).

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These three new segments are mainly driven by an increasing awareness and need for preventive
healthcare, natural therapies, and anti-aging products. The annual global growth rate of all three
segments is approximately 4%–8%. A noticeable geographical dominance is observed in different
segments – China and Japan are key Nutricosmetic markets accounting for 90% of global sales, while the
USA dominates the Nutraceutical category at approximately 45%.

You have recently joined a start-up analytics consultancy firm as an Insights Specialist. The first task is to
analyse the emergence of these industry segments in Australia. An end-user survey has been already
conducted and the data is available for your perusal. Your line-manager has not laid out any specific
expectations; however, he has re-iterated the need to ‘understand these industry segments, consumers,
the potential markets and opportunities’.

The Survey

Are you a regular consumer of beauty, health and wellness products?

(Data was only collected from regular consumers of beauty, health and wellness products.)

Question Corresponding column in data file

Which state do you live in? State
Select your annual income from the following three options. Income ($)
(<50,000; 50,000 – 70,000; 70,000 – 90,000; > 100,000)
Select your age band from the following options Age Band
(<30; 30-40; 40-50; 50-60; 60-70; >70)
Select your gender. Gender
(F for female; M for male)
How would you like us to contact you? Please select only one. Channel
(Social Media; Email; Post)
In which type of products are you most interested? Product Type
(Nutraceuticals; Nutricosmetics; Cosmeceuticals)
How much would you be willing to spend monthly on this type of product? Monthly ($)
(<$50; $50-$100; >$100)
In which form are you most comfortable to consume this type of product? Form
(pills; beverage; food)
How confident are you of the results from using the products? Confidence Rating
(1-5; 1: least confident and 5: most confident)
How confident are you to recommend to a friend? Recommendation Score
(1-10; 1: least confident and 10: most confident)

The dataset BUS5PB_Assignment1_datafile.xlsx contains the data collected from 360 participants. There
are eleven (11) columns in total as the data file starts with an ID column as an identifier for each row.

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Your Tasks

Task 1:
Conduct a critical review of the survey and its outcomes. Suggest improvements to the survey in terms
of data coverage and data metrics. You may refer to external sources of information to justify your
evaluation.

Task 2:
Develop two analytics solutions to analyse the dataset using data visualisation software packages.
• You need to select either one of IBM Cognos or SAP Lumira as the first software to build the first
visualization dashboard
• It’s mandatory to select Power BI as the second software package to build the second
visualization dashboard

It is recommended to explore insights among data to pinpoint characteristics of each segment – for
example, age or gender distribution for product type.

Task 3:
Based on the insights obtained from the analytics solutions and any external sources of information,
recommend effective marketing strategies (market opportunities, targeted customers, channels for
campaigns, etc.) for a potential client intending to enter these new industry segments in Australia. You
need to decide on the number of recommendations with a brief justification for your choice.
Recommendations should refer to visualisations (a combination of diagrams and charts) from your
analytics solutions and external references.

(Note: You are free to make reasonable assumptions and justifications given the educational nature of
this case study.)

Report Guidelines

1. The report should consist of a ‘table of contents’, an ‘introduction’, logically organised sections or
topics, a ‘conclusion’ and a ‘list of references’.
2. Choose a fitting sequence of sections or topics for the body of the report. Three sections for the
three tasks are essential, you may add other sections deemed relevant.
3. You must include diagrams, tables and charts from the analytics solutions to effectively present your
recommendations. (Consider using Alt + Print Screen or Snipping to capture screenshots).
4. Page limit: At least five (5) pages for the main report writing but not more than ten (10) pages.
5. Reports should be written in Microsoft Word (font size 11) and submitted as a Word file. (The PDF
file is acceptable.)
6. Final submission will comprise three separate files, two analytics solution files and the written report
as a Word file. Do not compress these files into a zipped archive, submit as three separate files.
• <Student_ID>_Assignment1_Report.doc
• <Student_ID>_Assignment1_Solution.lumx or <Student_ID>_Assignment1_Solution.cdd
• <Student_ID>_Assignment1_Solution.pbix

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Marking Rubric

A grade will be awarded to each of the tasks and then an overall mark determined for the entire
assessment. The rubric below gives you an idea of what you must achieve to earn a certain ‘grade’.

As a general rule, to meet a ‘C’, you must first satisfy the requirements of a ‘D’. And for an ‘A’, you must
first satisfy the requirements of a ‘B’, which must of course first meet the requirements of a ‘C’ and so
on.

The marking rubric for this assignment is given below.

Criterion Pass (D) Credit (C) Distinction (B) High Distinction (A)
Critical evaluation of Reasonable evaluation Good evaluation with Excellent evaluation Extensive evaluation
the survey (8 marks) with consideration for consideration for with consideration for with consideration for
few criteria. several criteria. many criteria. all criteria.

Analytics solution 1 Limited effort to Fair effort to structure Excellent effort to Exceptional effort to
(6 marks) structure and present and present structure and present structure and present
information and information and information and information and
insights. insights. insights. insights.

Limited knowledge of Fair knowledge of the Excellent knowledge Comprehensive

the software package. software package. of the software knowledge of the
package. software package.

Analytics solution 2 Limited effort to Fair effort to structure Excellent effort to Exceptional effort to
(6 marks) structure and present and present structure and present structure and present
information and information and information and information and
insights. insights. insights. insights.

Limited knowledge of Fair knowledge of the Excellent knowledge Comprehensive

the software package. software package. of the software knowledge of the
package. software package.

Recommendations Recommendations Recommendations Recommendations Recommendations

(10 marks) reflect a fair grasp of reflect a good grasp of reflect an excellent reflect an inclusive
the problem domain, the problem domain, grasp of the problem grasp of the problem
data, insights and data, insights and domain, data, insights domain, data, insights
expectations. expectations. and expectations. and expectations.

Other important Information

• Standard plagiarism and collusion policy, and extension and special consideration policy of this
university apply to this assignment.
• A cover sheet is NOT required. By submitting your work online, the declaration on the
university’s assignment cover sheet is implied and agreed to by you.